In a sort of competitive move against BMW’s recent announcement regarding its alliance with Toyota for hydrogen fuel cell technology, CARandDRIVER reports that Mercedes-Benz’s parent Daimler will pair up with Ford and Renault-Nissan to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

C/D says that the triplet can turn out a production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle as early as 2017 and the new alliance will help speed up the situation.

All major automakers in this collaboration have some solid background with Daimler and Ford potentially claiming industry leadership with their Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation known as AFCC. This small 200-person company, which will kick-off its joint venture between Ford and Daimler on February 1, 2013, will also coincide with Renault-Nissan’s efforts as well.

Conclusively, it seems that the next stage in exploring alternative propulsion will finally find its way into the realm of hydrogen fuel cell technology—which is a fabulous thing. The technology has always been there, but it’s never been economically feasible or size-efficient enough for mass production. But because technology is getting more and more advanced faster than ever before, hydrogen fuel cell technology may finally once prove to be the future for automobiles. I certainly hope so.